The talk of former New Jersey Devils executive packing up and heading to their dreaded rivals, the New York Islanders, is now rapidly heating up.
Recently relieved of his general manager duties with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it appears that Lou Lamoriello’s name has been linked to the New York Islanders.
Lamoriello was the GM of the Maple Leafs for three seasons, a playoff team in the last two. He is set to become an advisor for the Leafs, but not so fast. A late night tweet sent out by TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports that he has heard some chatter involving Lamoriello coming to the Isles. He also mentions that Darren Dreger, who also works for TSN, has been hearing similar things while working the 2018 IIHF World Championship in Denmark.
Take this for the proverbial FWIW, because it’s not what I would term a “report” as much as it is anecdotal — there seems to be a decided uptick in the Lou Lamoriello-to-NYI talk within the NHL community. @DarrenDreger noticed it today in DEN; my sense here in NA is the same.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) May 7, 2018
Until now, the idea had simply been thought of as a well-organized pipe dream.
Lamoriello was the GM of the New Jersey Devils from 1987 to 2015 and won the Stanley Cup with the Devils on three separate occasions (1995, 2000 and 2003).
A few weeks ago, Chris Botta of SNY’s Point Blank reported that the Islanders were looking for a top executive to join the hockey operations department.
With proven success throughout his tenure in both New Jersey and Toronto, Lamoriello may very well be the perfect fit for the Islanders, a team that could definitely use a new culture and/or shakeup with only one playoff series win in 25 years.
It should also be noted that there is a family connection involved as Lou’s son Chris works for the team as the Director of Player Personnel.
